staff people argue about what ought to go into a presidential speech. i didn t spend that much time on the president s speeches because he devoted so much time to it himself. he cared a lot and worked very hard. every once in a while i would be asked or something would come up. in this case i was concerned the word victory had been left out about remarks on iraq and afghanistan. part of it was my educational process as secretary of defense. having been in charge of the defense department through desert storm. the troops want to know what the mission is. they want to know they are supported in terms of the civilian leadership and the military leadership. they want to know they are going to have resources they need to do the job. what they don t need is any question, if you will or doubt coming out of washington. out of the political
president quoted the british. when they canned it and said yes this is true. saddam did had representatives that went to niger seeking yellow cake from their government. the problem was u once awe apologize for it, which is what happened in this case, it started a feeding frenzy. the press went wild. then there was the great manhunt to find who was responsible for putting those lines in the president s speech as though it was not true. it became part of the notion that somehow the president lied about what we found with respect to iraq. because that statement was in his state of the union speech. it was a true, accurate statement. sean: still to this day confirmed by british intelligence. never changed. in fed into the effort to this fed into the effort to claim that my office and/or others karl rove for example, scooter libby was my top guy
tell us, that is an interesting meeting. it was an interesting meeting. it was preparer to to this join press conference that the president held with tony blair. it is not unusual that staff people argue about what ought to go into a presidential speech. i didn t spend that much time on the president s speeches because he devoted so much time to it himself. he cared a lot and worked very hard. every once in a while i would be asked or something would come up. in this case i was concerned the word victory had been left out about remarks on iraq and afghanistan. part of it was my educational process as secretary of defense. having been in charge of the defense department through desert storm. the troops want to know what the mission
partly because of 9/11 and the aftermath because of all that we did to keep the country safe in the 7 1/2 years after so there were no further mass casualty attacks again the united states. the president made some big decisions like the terror surveillance program. the enhanced interrogation program. the decisions with respect to afghanistan and iraq. these were life and death decisions really. i think as a direct result of what he did as president, we got through that period in relatively good shape, as you look back now. i think he was a bold, decisive leader and i give him a lot of credit for the quality, if you will, of his presidential leadership. sean: we ll take a break. how vice president cheney convinced the president to include one important word in a pivotal speech on iraq one that the other chief advisers
when they canned it and said yes this is true. saddam did had representatives that went to niger seeking yellow cake from their government. the problem was u once awe apologize for it, which is what happened in this case, it started a feeding frenzy. the press went wild. then there was the great manhunt to find who was responsible for putting those lines in the president s speech as though it was not true. it became part of the notion that somehow the president lied about what we found with respect to iraq. because that statement was in his state of the union speech. it was a true, accurate statement. sean: still to this day confirmed by british intelligence. never changed. in fed into the effort to this fed into the effort to claim that my office and/or others karl rove for example, scooter libby was my top guy who they had been involved, or